In an NFL insider game that is filled with agent-driven PR and vague, surface-level reporting, Jay Glazer of FOX Sports has always been a little different. If he can't personally vet a story to its fullest extent, he doesn't go with it. That also limits the volume of "scoops" he reports.
So when Glazer reported about Maxx Crosby last Sunday on the FOX pregame show after the Las Vegas Raiders shut down their star defensive end for the season, it landed meaningfully. And it was not all what Raider Nation wanted to hear about the situation,
"Look, I've been on the phone with Maxx a bunch over the last couple days. He is not happy. He's like, 'Jay, I play football. This is what I do, I've had a knee injury since like Week 3, I've played with it the entire time. They told me they're shutting me down," Glazer said, to which Crosby allegedly responded. "I was like, 'No, absolutely not. I play football. There's no shutting it down for me; I want to be out there. I want to be out there with my teammates.' It just wasn't acceptable to Maxx. Remember back at the trade deadline, guys, I said that Maxx Crosby told me and told the Raiders, 'I don't wanna get traded anywhere, no matter what.' You gotta wonder now if that still holds true, despite this."
Mike Florio affirms what Raider Nation needs to know about Jay Glazer's Maxx Crosby reporting
In the wake of the news that he was being shut down because he needed surgery on his injured knee, Crosby seemed to send a subtle message with posts on Instagram showing him doing things that, well, someone with a knee that needs to be fixed probably shouldn't be doing.
On Monday's edition of PFT Live, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk stoked the trade speculation fire around Crosby with reference to Glazer's report, and he confirmed Raiders fans' worst fears with what he reported.
“[Glazer] said he spoke to Maxx Crosby a lot in recent days, and Crosby vehemently objected to the idea of putting him on injured reserve,” Florio said. “He’d been playing with a knee injury all year long. And so Glazer’s quoting Crosby, and then at the end, Glazer says, 'You know, back around the trading deadline, there was some talk about Crosby possibly being traded, and he told the team he doesn’t want to be traded. You have to wonder if he feels differently now.' Well, you talked to him, Jay, and the fact that he stopped short, I think Crosby has told him, but you can’t say it."
Florio then offered the bottom line when it comes to Glazer as a reporter.
“Glazer doesn’t drop that turd in the punch bowl unless he knows he can back it up,” Florio wrote.
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Amid a lot of losing and occasional trade speculation, Crosby has remained fiercely loyal to the Silver and Black. But at 29 years old by the time next season starts, his career timeline is starting to be unignorably misaligned with where the Raiders are.
No one would blame Crosby for being frustrated or changing his tune about wanting to be traded, regardless of being shut down with two games left in the season. Las Vegas is not exactly a destination for players who want to win.
But Glazer may have gotten it straight from the source regarding how that trade tune might be changing for Crosby. Otherwise, he wouldn't have reported it as he did on his pregame show segment.
Time will tell if the sentiment holds water, but Raiders fans should already be preparing for the possibility that Crosby is in another uniform next season. Oftentimes, where there is smoke, there is fire.